A press release of the Russian Foreign Ministry issued at the end of a meeting of Lavrov with a top-level Moroccan delegation said that the meeting attached "particular interest" to the settlement of the Sahara issue.

    Morocco is devising a plan to grant substantial autonomy to its Southern Provinces and put an end to the dispute over this territory which erupted in 1976 when the Polisario laid claims to the Moroccan Sahara. The territory had been retrieved by Morocco from Spanish rule a year before under the Madrid Accord signed with Spain and Mauritania.

    The FM release said that the Moroccan delegation, composed of Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa, deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Taieb Fassi Fihri, deputy Minister of the Interior Fouad Ali El Himma and the head of Morocco's intelligence Yassine Mansouri, affirmed to the Russian officials that the project will be completed “taking stock of consultations with all the concerned parties.”

    The delegation also held talks about the autonomy project with Russia’s National Security Council secretary, Igor Ivanov.

    Morocco and Russia underlined the key role of the United Nations in this respect, voicing support to the efforts made by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and by his personal envoy to the Sahara, Julian Harston, said the press release.

    It went on to say that the two parties exchanged viewpoints about regional and international issues, stressing the “need to establish global, fair and solid peace in the middle east” on the basis of the agreed upon rules and the international law.

    The two parties also voiced “satisfaction over the positive development of Moroccan-Russian relations and over the implementation process of the agreements signed during the visit of the Russian President to Morocco last September.”

    Prior to Moscow, the Moroccan delegation had met with French, Spanish, US, and British officials to drum up support for the autonomy plan.